Charged particle tomography is based on the scattering of charged particles. One form of charged particle tomography is cosmic ray tomography which relies on the scattering of cosmic ray muons. Coming from deep space, stable particles, mostly protons, continuously bombard the Earth. These particles interact with atoms in the upper atmosphere to produce showers of particles that include many short-lived pions which decay and produce longer-lived muons. Muons interact with matter primarily through the Coulomb force, having no nuclear interaction and radiating much less readily than electrons. They lose energy only slowly through electromagnetic interactions. Consequently, many of the muons arrive at the Earth's surface as highly penetrating charged radiation. The muon flux at sea level is about one muon per cm2 per minute.
As a muon moves through material, Coulomb scattering of the charges of subatomic particles perturb its trajectory. The total deflection depends on several material properties, but the dominant parameters are the atomic number, Z, of the nuclei and the material density.
There is a need to provide an improved method and system for reconstructing a volume of interest from muons or other charged particles passing through the volume.